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Golden: Top Five Tuesday: Charlie Strong’s most important players

The latest Top Five Tuesday involves the most important players on the Texas football team this fall. If these guys don’t perform, it will be another long season for Charlie Strong.

Strong talked about leadership in his Monday media availability and lot was lost from the 2014 team. The players mentioned below must step up if the Horns are to get back to the winning side of things.

On to the list.

5. Marcus Johnson

This time last year, I picked Marcus Johnson to be the breakout receiver on this team. He finished with a disappointing 27 catches for 313 yards as John Harris established himself as the alpha dog at receiver. Harris is gone as is Jaxon Shipley — that’s a combined 127 catches for 1,628 yards and 8 touchdowns — so Johnson will have to do his part to help fill that void in 2015. He has the talent to give the Horns a versatile option in the deep passing game and has always had great hands.

He just needs to be busier this fall. Best case scenario? Johnson comes out of nowhere to put up Harris-type numbers his senior year.

4. Daje Johnson

If this kid ever comes close to meeting his potential, the offense will be 50 percent better than it is now. Johnson has promised Strong that his days of being in the coach’s doghouse are in the past.

If he remains in uniform and stays healthy, the Horns have a player who can provide a Percy-Harvin type impact: running back, receiver, return man. Johnson only played six of a possible 13 games last season, missing three with a hamstring and the other four for disciplinary reasons. He insists his off-the-field problems are behind him. We’ll see.

3. Duke Thomas

The cornerback was picked on by opposing QBs on the regular with the more experienced Quandre Diggs on the other side. Making the step to the No. 1 corner on the roster means he will get the other team’s best wideout each week. We’ll find out in a hurry if he is better as a senior. After a junior year that saw him register three interceptions with 10 pass breakups, Thomas returns as the most experienced player in a secondary that graduated Diggs and Mykkele Thompson.

Can’t wait to see what he does with the hard-hitting Jason Hall expected to demand more reps at safety.

Thomas had his moments after that well-documented touchdown he gave up at the end of the UCLA game. The experience of playing with the ultra confident Diggs for three years will come in handy this fall because his resolve will be tested for sure.

2. Johnathan Gray

With Malcolm Brown gone, the onus falls on Gray to become the below of this offense. He will be a full season removed from the Achilles injury that ruined his freshman year and will be counted on to give this offense a dependable option in the run game.

Gray carried 147 times for 637 yards and four touchdowns but didn’t show that full burst we saw from him his first two years as his yards from carry dropped 4.9 to 4.3 yards per carry. Now that he’s healthy and fully recovered from the surgery, we’ll see if Gray can put up the best numbers of his college career.

1. Jerrod Heard

With reports circulating that Charlie Strong is tinkering with the offense to make it a more wide-open attack, the redshirt freshman could emerge as the answer at quarterback, especially if the offense is similar to the one he led to a pair of state titles at Denton Guyer.

Heard spent the year on the bench and will enter the season with full spring and summer camps under his belt, barring injury. The Horns are hoping he can give them the kind of playmaking that was lacking at several points last season with the incumbent Tyrone Swoopes.

Top Five Tuesday is Cedric Golden’s weekly look at sports and other areas of pop culture in his Golden’s Nuggets blog. Your comments are welcomed because that’s the beauty of lists: the debates they inspire. Other TFT lists are linked below.